


On Deck

by taedreamer



Series: Exo Rare Pairs [3]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Angst, Blood and Injury, Historical Accuracy, Historical References, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean, M/M, Minor Character Death, No Romance, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-08-03 11:36:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16325465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taedreamer/pseuds/taedreamer
Summary: “What did you say, boy?” The question was rushed out like a threat, voice a little too quiet to be normal. The captain’s crew stood by silently, as if air had stopped moving. Chanyeol kept his head up and his chest out, eyes squared toward the menacing pirate.The words startled Jongdae as well as Junmyeon, who until then could have been dead for all the Prince knew. The royal captain huffed out air through his nose and clenched his fist against the splintering wood pitifully, trying and failing to convey some sort of signal for Chanyeol to keep his fucking mouth shut.“The man you almost killed: Prince Kim Jongdae of the Korean Empire. Worth more than a piece of trash like you could even dream of.” Chanyeol’s eyes were tired but threatening, begging the captain to challenge what he was saying and kill Jongdae anyways. A new trail of blood leaked from the corner of his bruised lips.





	On Deck

**Author's Note:**

> i rarely read any pirate aus that aren't extremely cheesy and romanticized and i wanted to write one that was at least slightly more historically and emotionally accurate
> 
> also it is 4:23am sorry if i am illiterate
> 
> minseok: pirate captain, 33  
> jongdae: prince, 27  
> chanyeol: royal guard, 27  
> junmyeon: royal naval captain, 30  
> kyungsoo: pitate first mate, 24  
> yixing: pirate translator, 29  
> zitao: royal translator, 26  
> luhan: stowaway on naval ship, 17  
> yifan: former prisoner of pirates, 25  
> baekhyun: pirate, 27  
> jongin: pirate, 22  
> sehun: pirate, 21

The wind was in their favor. It whipped around them in silence, causing Junmyeon’s blazer to fall open. His shirt wrinkled in response to the forcefulness of it, but the man paid no mind.

It was a warm morning for being on the ocean and the captain took it in his stride. He removed his hat, allowing the breeze to flow through his hair, the sun to coat his forehead like a blanket. The heat was foreign in the Pacific, and Junmyeon wasn’t naive enough to think it would last. He might as well enjoy it for the time being.

“Ship!” The call came from bellow his post, somewhere among the deck hands. Junmyeon didn’t bother to search for the source, instead retrieving a telescope from his belt. It only took the captain a moment to locate the approaching ship, his eyes narrowing in contemplation as he did so.

The colors were familiar, the ship itself French in design. Probably just traders. He knew they could easily be heading for China or Japan, although the latter was unlikely. There was no reason to fret.

“Lower the mast!”

The command brought life to the ship, igniting the men aboard like fire to a fuze. No man stood still, and the captain carefully took the wheel. He placed his hat back on his head, shielding the sunburnt skin. The ship was just visible with the naked eye, and although Junmyeon was far too irritable to deal with Frenchmen, a trade could prove to be beneficial.

Moments later, once the mast was down and the wind circled freely around them, a voice rose out from bellow.

“Captain! Why have we slowed down?” The sound was recognizable, and so the man spared a glance toward the guard at the base of the stairs. The man was towering, and his legs swept up each step like a tide crashing upon a shore. There was a sword secured tightly to his hip and a revolver holstered opposite it.

“Ah, Chanyeol! We’ve spotted a French trading ship in the South.” The explanation was tactical and simple, and the large man nodded as if it was all he needed to hear. Seeing as it came from Captain Kim Junmyeon, it probably was.

“How is the Prince fairing?”

Junmyeon was looking off into the distance, the approaching ship growing closer each moment. Chanyeol let out a laugh and the captain allowed himself to focus his attention on the man once again. There was grease on his jaw and his shirt was unbuttoned extremely low. He wore no blazer and no hat but a dimpled smirk sat atop his face proudly. At first glance, one would never know he was a royal guard.

"Oh, you know Jongdae! He hates sailing with a passion." Junmyeon smiled and returned his eyes to the sea. Chanyeol relaxed his long limbs and leaned against a nearby banister, watching the water as well.

"You really should refer to him by his title." The comment was laced with humor, resonating from behind the two men. Chanyeol turned his head just enough to catch sight of the Chinese man before returning it to the ocean. The grin on his face was still prominent.

"You are one to talk, Zitao." The man strolled over to Junmyeon's opposite side, keeping his lips sealed but eyes shining with mischief. The translator was a very useful asset to the Korean Royal Navy, and that reason alone was what kept him alive. The man was known for his trouble. Despite that, the captain had grown extremely fond of the younger. Most people did.

"So, where is His Highness?" Chanyeol snorted at the exaggerated use of the honorific, but answered nonetheless.

"Below deck, trying not to lose his breakfast."

The winds were fairly strong and the ship continued to drift in the ocean, despite the missing mast. The approaching ship became clearer with each passing moment and the captain found himself entranced with it. She was large, beautiful for just a simple trading ship, with a strictly French design. There was no doubt in Junmyeon's mind.

Chanyeol pushed himself off of the banister, his tired smile stretching even further. The sun made his skin look dark, a lovely contrast to the paleness of his shirt. He began descending the short set of stairs, claiming something about fetching the Prince. Zitao yelled something after him, but the words went ignored by both the guard and the captain.

The translator was young, as was most of Junmyeon's crew, only in his twenty-eighth year. He was nothing more than a stray, an immigrant from China when the captain had found him. He had needed some conditioning, but in time, the man had become something of unlimited value to the Koreans. Speaking five languages was a feat in its own, but extreme military knowledge of enemies of the Crown proved a worthy reason to keep him alive.

"The ship is French, and I shall require your services." Junmyeon kept his eyes locked on the now blatantly visible vessel just a ways off from them. Zitao straightened out, eyeing the captain for a moment before turning his attention back to the water as well. Routine shouts from the deck rang out around them but neither took interest.

"What do we need from a French trading vessel? Whatever they have to offer we will surely find in Singapore once we arrive." Zitao was right, Junmyeon knew. But the ship was running fairly low on fresh food. The journey was moving along quickly, but not as quick as the captain had hoped.

"I am hoping to trade for some fresh fruits, maybe some breads. Supply is too low for my liking."

At the explanation, Zitao hummed a confirmation. He then turned and began making his way down to the main deck, following the wordless order to prepare the interaction. Junmyeon was proud.

"Captain!"

The call sounded urgent, a bit afraid. It was loud and shrill, but still coming from far away. The man took his eyes away from the ship in front of him, instead scanning his many crew members. He found his target standing on the ship's bow, leaning dangerously off and balancing a telescope up to his eye. The boy was young, merely a child hired by the Navy as a lookout and cabin boy. He was frantic, shifting his wait before turning to face the captain. Even with the distance between them, Junmyeon saw the terror.

"Pirates!"

This was not the call Junmyeon was expecting, not the call he had ever wanted to hear. Not since the last time.

Panic seemed to envelop the deck in a mere moment. The captain's eyes were steeled but the chaotic voices booming around him let his face slip into that of shock, that of dread. Cries of astonishment and fear came from men carrying sacks of grain, from boys hauling ropes twice their weight.

Only once before had Junmyeon faced the unrelenting doom of pirates and the encounter left a looming fear in the back of his mind, one he knew would never truly go away. He was a rookie then, at only twenty-six, far more so than he was now that he was thirty. His inexperience had betrayed him and a pirate vessel had managed to close in on them in the dead of the night. Four men died due to gun and cannon fire before the newly appointed captain could get them out of range. The failure was overlooked by the Navy, named nothing more than a mistake that could have happened to the most seasoned of sailors, but the names of those four men never left him.

Now, years later, Captain Junmyeon was petrified by the negligence he possessed in his decision to approach a simple French trading ship.

Zitao was by his side in an instant, as if he had never left. Junmyeon spared him a glance, quick and uncertain but still far more than he thought to give any of the other floundering members of his crew. The translator returned it, his youth obvious within deep brown eyes but his jaw still set, steady as ever.

“Captain!”

The calls continued to circulate as Junmyeon returned his focus to the sea. His hands were clammy, worse than usual under the conditions of the life he’d chosen.

The ship was too close. With his eye alone, Junmyeon could see the risen black of a pirates mark decorating the mast. This revelation seemed to trigger something in the captain, something that the panic and terror did not.

“Ready the cannons!” His voice sounded surreal, like it wasn’t his own. He felt twelve years old again, taking orders from his own captain, fetching this and that and hiding in the shadows.

By now the deck was overflowing with the hurried movements of panicked men wanting to live, running on autopilot and adrenaline to overcome their fear. Their captain was effective, despite his own suffocating unsureness. Crew members were rushing to their stations, bustling to the lower decks and cleaning the cannons for immediate use.

The approaching ship was extremely close, and anyone with enough time to look could see the faces of the pirates looming over them. Zitao, with his determined resilience, stared them down with his feet planted in place, daring each of the pirates to do the same to him. Junmyeon did the same, hands still attached to the wheel to avoid the humiliation of being caught shaking and afraid. His eyes suddenly caught on a figure much more threatening than the rest, much more intimidating and definitely in charge. His face was screwed up in a smirk, something devilish and unsuspectingly ordinary all at the same time; he could have been a drunken bar patron, a man seduced by what he craved, a genius in love with his reward. The Royal captain was ashamed to say he felt frightened by such a creature.

“Junmyeon!” The cry was close by and even Zitao’s attention was quickly drawn from its previous target to look at Chanyeol. The tall man was sticking out from beneath the balcony, feet still planted on the steps that led to the underneath of the ship. Men were rushing by him, not bothering to mind the tall guard in their path and consistently knocking shoulders and elbows into him. Chanyeol himself looked wild, his serene stature from moments ago gone and replaced by worry and manic.

The breeze had picked up tremendously, swirling around in the wind and carrying tension to all who breathed in the musky sea air. The pirates were ridiculously close by now, the jeering from their ship echoing across only a short strip of open water. In only a moment or two, Junmyeon’s ship would be swarmed and inescapable.

“Tao. Get below deck. If the cannons are ready, order immediate fire.” The command was hushed and clipped, as if Junmyeon’s mind was somewhere else altogether. Zitao returned his gaze to the captain briefly and muttered his acknowledgment before scurrying off. Junmyeon was still locked on Chanyeol, even as Zitao brushed past him and melted into the crowd of soldiers and sailors alike.

“Stay with the Prince! Protect him by all means necessary, Chanyeol!” The orders finally sounded like his own, finally felt real. Chanyeol nodded curtly and was already removing the gun from his belt as he disappeared from his line of sight.

A muffled shout rang out somewhere below Junmyeon’s feet and the boom of three cannons followed it almost immediately. Cracking and splintering resounded sharply and the captain couldn’t help the proud air he held at seeing three formidable holes decorating the side of the stolen French ship. Cheers came from the deck and even more floated up from beneath it.

Junmyeon gave the men atop his ship a once over; many were adorned with swords and military issued guns of limited effectiveness. It was all they had, and a sinking feeling told the captain that it was a far cry from enough. It was his own fault, as was the last time.

“Some welcome, Captain!”

The call was condescending and boisterous, loud and hardy, and Junmyeon’s blood boiled as his eyes snapped toward the sound. It was the same man, larger than life and yet Junmyeon felt, realistically, he could overpower him if given the chance.

The pirate was smiling and his large teeth and gums made him appear inhuman, demonic. There was a darkness surrounding his eyes, whether it was intentional or purely the remnants of grime was unknown.

“Allow me to introduce myself! Captain Kim Minseok, at your service!” His speech was articulated and playful, as if he wasn’t threatening the destruction of numerous innocent lives with his very presence. Junmyeon knew the truth.

“We have nothing of use to you, except for maybe soap, and we will gladly hand over what ever you deem fit! We want no trouble!” The words were humorous but honest all the same, something that Junmyeon had unfortunately always been unable to shake.

Captain Kim Minseok let out a laugh.

“Ah see, that is where you’re wrong!” At those words, a muffled cue must have resonated with the other pirates because at least four cannons were fired directly into the hull. Screams from below deck were drastically close to him, drowning and resuscitating him all at once.

Suddenly, pirates were descending upon the deck in an overwhelming flood, leering and howling as they swung across the blue and into the fight. Junmyeon himself pulled out his own revolver, the one sitting opposite the telescope on his belt. At least a dozen pirates dotted his vision and a dozen more were sure to follow. He quickly pulled back the cylinder and screwed it up before closing it and extending the weapon.

He saw a young man, one of his own and probably no older than twenty, taking on a larger pirate. His judgment quickly got the best of him and without so much as a second glance he pulled the trigger.

The shot was loud, ringing in Junmyeon’s ears and causing his arm to jerk back slightly. A thin veil of smoke erupted from the barrel of the gun, fogging the captain’s vision. Four years was a long time without a fight and he had forgotten what it felt like to kill someone.

The bullet, small but deadly, landed in the center of the pirates back, close to his neck. The blood was slow to come at first, and part of Junmyeon was worried that he had missed. Suddenly though, all too suddenly, the man was dropping to his hands. Junmyeon couldn’t see his face, but he thought of blood: crimson and hot like fire as it poured out, pooling around grime-dusted cheeks and a course beard. Blood from his ears, his mouth, trickling down his nose like a damn stream. It was morbid and toxic and the carnage unfolding around him really should have been more of a concern, but all he could see was that one man’s blood.

The boy, still painted with the shock that Junmyeon felt, abruptly toppled to the ground with the quick flash of a sword licking his skin.

One after another, his men dissolved into nothing but stale blood and bones. It was all so reckless and dishonorable; their lives meant nothing and they were gone as if they had never been there at all. An overwhelming pain settled in the captain’s gut, one he knew wouldn’t go away for a very long time.

Before he could pull back the cylinder on his revolver, a sharp pain erupted in his right shoulder, causing the man to drop the weapon altogether. A clipped yell fell from his lips as he toppled forward on his knees, the pain following him all the way down. Junmyeon couldn’t see the wound, even as he turned his neck to glance behind him, but he recognized the sting of a blade. It was probably no bigger than that of a dagger, but it rendered his arm immobile all the same.

A fist curled itself into the fine hairs at the nape of the captain’s neck, jerking his head to the side and causing his shoulder to fly further out of place. Despite the pain, Junmyeon swallowed the whimpers and forced his eyes open. He did not recognize the man in his vision as the pirate captain, but instead noticed how much younger he was. His hair was kept extremely short, although it did not look cut very carefully. Some of the dark strands were slightly longer than others, sticking out at odd angles due to the wind. His face looked so young, his skin tan and unblemished save a nasty looking scar stretching from the bottom of his left ear all the way across his jaw, stopping just short of his chin. It looked at least a few years old. His eyes were dark and unmoving, trained to remain emotionless despite all the blood and the gore. Simply put, he looked far too innocent to be gripping Junmyeon’s hair that tightly, but he was anything but.

Screams rang out from the remaining crew members, some flitting through the cracks in the ship letting Junmyeon know that the pirates had made it below deck. His eyes were drawn behind the young pirate standing before him, to where many of his crew members were being forced on their knees, pistols held an inch or two from their foreheads. The shots Junmyeon was expecting never came, though. Much of the noise above deck was gone and the few shouts that the captain did hear were far away. Just as Junmyeon’s mind landed on the Prince, the pirate tightened his grasp on his hair and pulled the captain on his feet. He only made it a few short steps before the deck disappeared below and the pirate let go of him, allowing Junmyeon to go tumbling down the small flight of stairs and on level ground once again. The knife, still lodged into the joint of the captain’s shoulder, was pushed in up to the hilt, ripping a scream from Junmyeon as he made final contact with the wood of the deck. The scream, however, was choked off by nauseous gagging and the consequential vomit spewing out of his mouth, courtesy of the overwhelming, sickening rush of pain. Suddenly the sun seemed too brilliant, the cruel laughter too loud, and Junmyeon could only close his eyes as the taste of acid and copper coated his tongue.

“Let go of me! How dare you touch me!”

There was a loud thud on the deck somewhere to Junmyeon’s right as Jongdae was dragged up on deck and thrown gracelessly on the splintering wood. The captain could hear the Prince’s ragged and anxious breathing and he realized that he must be closer than he initially thought.

After a few seconds spent mustering up the strength, Junmyeon peaked his eyes out as much as he could. And, of course, the captain found the Prince already staring at him intently. Jongdae’s eyes flickered wildly from Junmyeon’s own pain-filled ones to the small dagger jammed into his shoulder and back again, his anxious breathing speeding up all that much more.

Junmyeon tried to move, to reassure the young Prince that he was okay, but all he could do was whine pitifully as a boot landed squarely on is back, taking the air from his lungs. The captain could not see who was behind him, but as he watched Jongdae’s eyes fill with panic and terror, he knew who it was.

The boot pushed down harder, causing pain to flare up in his injured shoulder and a shout to bubble out of his mouth. The noise seemed to almost spur the pirate on, though, and the pressure grew ever stronger. Junmyeon tried to contain it, tried to breathe through the pain, but the pirate was unsatisfied with this, pushing and pushing until a mutilated scream ripped its way out of the captain’s mouth. Loud, boisterous laughter rolled through the air like thunder. The pirate seemed to have no intentions of stopping, instead digging the toe of his boot deeper into the wound, when the Prince finally begged for him to stop.

“Stop it! Fuck, please, stop it!” The cry was shrill and high-pitched, and it distinctly belonged to Jongdae.

Slowly, the pressure lessened, until only the ghost of the pain was left on Junmyeon’s back. The screaming had since stopped, replaced by heavy breathing and shuddering. The captain couldn’t lift his head, could barely open his eyes, but he felt every step that the pirate took as he made his way around Junmyeon’s limp body and towards the helpless Prince. Each step felt like a whip, the crackling of the wood beneath his boots causing a wince to fly through his body. Junmyeon could hear Jongdae’s breathing speed up tenfold, and although it sounded labored and frightened, he knew the stubbornness coursing through his veins wouldn’t allow for it to slip into his voice.

“I’m sorry, I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced. Your captain really should know better.” The disdain that dripped from his voice at the mention of the man he had stood on only a moment before was unmistakable and the pirate crew around them chuckled at their captain’s words. Junmyeon flinched at the loud noise, unable to handle both that and the blood rushing to his ears. As the seconds ticked by, the sting in his shoulder calmed to only a dull ache and the pain subsided enough to allow air back into his lungs.

As Junmyeon tried to focus on his breathing, the pirate captain began to speak again, inching all that much closer to the unnamed boy before him. A small dagger was unsheathed from his belt, slowly and demanding of attention. Of course, Jongdae provided, gluing his eyes to the knife and refusing to leave it.

“Captain Kim Minseok of the Lucky One, at your service. And you are?” His tone was light and airy, similar to that of nobles back in Korea. However, Jongdae knew it was nothing but a mask, a ruse to lure him in, even as countless good sailors lay in piles of their own blood and piss around them. The young Prince was certain that his silence would not be deemed acceptable by the captain but he found himself unable to speak. Revealing his status might be the only thing to keep him alive, but it was just as likely to have him gutted on the spot, a spectacle and a warning at the same time.

“Suddenly the boy wants to act shy!” The call was loud and the pirates around them reacted accordingly, chuckling at their leader’s antics. Jongdae let his gaze fall from the knife down to his own knees. The pressure of the situation was causing his breathing to labor and his hands to tremble. He needed something to ground him.

There was a sudden shuffle behind the Prince, a sound resulting from a struggle between two people. Jongdae wanted to turn and see who it was but a loud clang to his left sent him retreating further into himself out of fear.

The clang, as it turns out, was none other than a body. The loser of the struggle was sent toppling down to his knees beside the captive Prince and once Jongdae’s breathing was not so stark he allowed himself the smallest of glances. His eyes widened at what he saw.

Hunched over on his hands sat a bleeding Chanyeol. The last the Prince had seen, his guard was locked in a fierce battle of steel on steel, one Jongdae would have assumed Chanyeol to win.

There was a slight commotion resonating around the deck, presumably at something the captain was saying, but Jongdae just kept his eyes trained on his best friend, helpless only a few feet away. Chanyeol let out a pained sound and he sat up slightly, letting his eyes roam until they connected with the Prince’s very own. The look they shared held so much regret, so much fear, and Jongdae felt it when Chanyeol mouthed out how sorry he was. The Prince shook his head slightly but accepted the apologies nonetheless.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” The captain, despite his own entertainment of his crew, must have watched the exchange. The pirate who had delivered the struggling guard quickly relayed the encounter back to his superior. Only then did Jongdae acknowledge the sheer size and weight that the man held over Chanyeol.

"Friends, are we?" The captain was keeping his voice lower than before, preserving his words for only the two captives on their knees before him. When nobody answered, the captain chuckled deep in his throat before squatting down so he was face to face with Chanyeol.

"No?" The guard kept his eyes raised and level with the dark one's of the captain, despite the blood leaking down from his hairline.

At the show of defiance, the Captain laughed all that much louder, this time shifting his focus over towards the smaller male. The Prince, whose eyes had been previously locked on Chanyeol, suddenly flinched at the attention.

"Perhaps, something more, then?” The words were practically whispered to Jongdae, Chanyeol barely overhearing them over the pounding in his heart and in his ears.

The knife was forgotten for a moment, but quickly remembered when the blade was lifted up to trace the underside of the Prince's jaw lightly. Chanyeol tensed and his eyes locked on the captain like lasers. Jongdae could only sit still, sputtering as the sharp edge licked his skin and caused thin streams of red to fall down his face. His entire body shook and it felt as if the captain would never be sated by the terror he was causing.

Suddenly, though, the knife was gone from tracing delicate patterns on his jaw and positioned much more dangerously against the front of the throat. The change in movement caused Jongdae to flinch and fall forward slightly, cutting open the front of his neck. He hissed at the pain, a sting that he would likely feel long after the wound scarred over.

"Sure there isn't something you're holding back, lover boy?" The question was directed at Chanyeol, despite how focused the man was on the blood running down the smaller man's neck in a steady flow. The guard was practically clawing at the ground, trying to find purchase and not pounce on the man, knowing it would likely lead to the deaths of the remaining crew members, himself and Jongdae included.

With still no response, the captain glanced between the two quickly and finally settled back on the knife. "Fine, then. Have it your way."

The captain jerked his arm back sharply, readying himself for a clean strike through the soft tissue of the boy’s neck. Jongdae’s eyes snapped shut in fear, the dagger being the last thing he saw.

"Stop! Stop."

The words sounded painful to deliver, desperate and meaningful and treacherous. The knife was halted in time, but the Prince’s eyes remained sealed shut. The boy who was about to have his throat slashed open suddenly seemed more condemned to his fate than Chanyeol, almost giving up. The captain only grinned.

"Go on, boy. Make it worth my wild."

There was a painful sigh and when one of the pirates deemed that the response was taking too long there was the sharp impact of a boot to the back. Chanyeol yelped quietly and tried to sit up straighter when hissing out his reply.

"You wouldn't kill a Prince, now would you, Captain?” Blood dripped down the tan skin of Chanyeol’s chin and over the expanse of his neck. A thin spray of red punctuated each word and the pirate captain looked almost gleeful. “You wouldn’t let all that money go to waste.”

Jongdae kept his entire body still, practically holding his breath despite the urge to scream and jerk away from the situation. He was sure his best friend’s disrespect and obvious sarcasm would earn him another punishment, and in the end it would only accomplish a small delay of the inevitable. The Prince shuddered at the thought of dying on the sea-soaked wooden planks beneath him, his last breath tasting of salt.

With eyes still closed, the Prince could only hear as the boots before him took slow and steady steps toward his left; toward Chanyeol.

“What did you say, boy?” The question was rushed out like a threat, voice a little too quiet to be normal. The captain’s crew stood by silently, as if air had stopped moving. Chanyeol kept his head up and his chest out, eyes squared toward the menacing pirate.

The words startled Jongdae as well as Junmyeon, who until then could have been dead for all the Prince knew. The royal captain huffed out air through his nose and clenched his fist against the splintering wood pitifully, trying and failing to convey some sort of signal for Chanyeol to keep his fucking mouth shut.

“The man you almost killed: Prince Kim Jongdae of the Korean Empire. Worth more than a piece of trash like you could even dream of.” Chanyeol’s eyes were tired but threatening, begging the captain to challenge what he was saying and kill Jongdae anyways. A new trail of blood leaked from the corner of his bruised lips.

Jongdae finally dared to open his eyes, the sun blinding him more than usual. He took his time trying to adjust to the new atmosphere. The silence was different from before, and even though the Prince could not see the captain clearly, he knew the gears were turning in his head. Chanyeol might have just saved his life.

A hearty laugh suddenly bubbled up from deep in the pirate’s throat. Chanyeol’s eyes darkened as he kept his target in focus, not sure if the reaction he was receiving was reassuring or not. As the laughter continued, other members of the crew began to sputter along, assuming safety by following their captain. It was a long few moments, the Prince holding his breath the entire time.

“Well! Why didn’t you say something sooner? This is a special occasion! One that calls for celebration!”

At the exaggerated shift of the captain’s voice, the young-looking pirate with the scar, who Junmyeon assumed was second in command, hopped down the few wooden steps separating him from the chaos. The pirate captain did not bother to glance back at him, instead smiling sickeningly at the Prince. Chanyeol, however, turned his attention solely on the young man, the unbothered look in his eyes setting alarms off in the guard’s head.

Throughout the few moments of conversation, many of the crew members were dragged above deck with revolvers digging into their backs and swords toeing against their throats. Junmyeon had barely noticed, too preoccupied with his own deadly entanglement to spare a crevice of his mind for anyone else, save maybe the Prince. Despite his selfishness, with the strange silence leaving the air stiff, the captain allowed himself to survey the survivors as best he could from his flattened position.

At least three-quarters of the crew was dead. The rest was either bleeding out or being held at the tip of a sword.

Most of the remaining members were pliant and quivering, shying away from the filthy hands that held them in place, all except Zitao. The translator was on his knees, a deep gash cutting through the white fabric and soft flesh of his bicep. There was definite amounts of blood on the younger’s face, although from Junmyeon’s point of view, it was indiscernible as to whose it was. Zitao was jerking against the pirate’s hold of him, ignoring the looming danger of the sword at his throat even as it cut shallowly into the tan skin there.

Junmyeon was absorbed in watching the translator, tears in his eyes all the while. He had failed them. He had failed again.

The pirate captain was saying something again, but there was too much blood rushing through Junmyeon’s ears to decipher it. Suddenly the second in command was approaching him, moving too quickly to even allow the captain to flinch away. The young pirate crouched down, sparing no time in gripping his sheathed dagger and ripping it from its home in Junmyeon’s shoulder. With it, the man brought an ill-prepared scream and all the oxygen residing in the royal captain’s lungs.

Junmyeon didn’t register that he was the one screaming, not at first. But when he did, the pain hit him full force, knocking the conscious out of him. The noise was abruptly cut off, leaving only the rustling of the waves and the restoring of the newly cleaned dagger into its holster on the young pirate’s waist.

Chanyeol’s teeth were gritting; Jongdae’s jaw was lying on the deck of the ship as his breathing rapidly increased.

“We need him. See to it that he doesn’t bleed out, Kyungsoo.” With the order given, the second in command, Kyungsoo, bent down and scooped up the lifeless limbs of a once mighty captain, barking at another pirate to grab his arms. As Junmyeon was all but dragged away, the Prince finally decided he had enough.

“Stop! I’m Prince Kim Jongdae! I’m what you want, spare the rest of my crew and my captain!” The words were meant to sound dignified, although Jongdae knew that they didn’t. Chanyeol hissed at him to keep his mouth shut but if there was anything that the Prince could do to stop this, he would.

The captain looked at the man for a long moment, as if he was considering accepting his offer. But his orders never changed and in less than a minute Junmyeon was being hoisted over the railing of one ship and on the deck of another. Jongdae let out a breath that he did not realize he was holding as his captain’s limp body was dumped on the salty paneling. It was done. It was happening in spite of everything.

Captain Minseok smirked at the defeated look on the Prince’s face and turned his back to him.

“Take His Majesty and the other one with us. Load anything valuable.” The orders were left in his wake as the man began walking briskly toward the joint of the two vessels. The pirates began swarming around above and below deck once again, careful not to underestimate the remaining crew members and binding them with rope. The pirates behind both Jongdae and Chanyeol pulled them up, with only a small struggle from the bigger man. The Prince was guided much more delicately than Chanyeol, being led with only a few shoves in the back and grunts to keep moving, while the guard was hit with the butt of a sword if he did not move quickly enough.

Just as the captain made it to the bridge, a shout echoed up from the stairs leading below deck.

“Sir! Captain! I’ve found somethin’ you should see!”

That captain turned slightly, causing Jongdae and Chanyeol to stall in their movement as well. The Prince craned his neck desperately to see what his ship possessed that was spectacular enough for a pirate to speak so abruptly toward his captain.

As he turned to look, the pirate behind him grabbed his neck roughly and pointed him away from the scene, although not before Jongdae was able to catch a glimpse of a young boy being dragged into the sun by a surly looking pirate. The glance was quick, but from what the Prince could tell, the boy couldn’t have been older than fifteen. Jongdae had no record of such a young cabin boy being aboard, the only conclusion making a semblance of sense being that the boy was a stowaway.

Minseok did not bother to examine the boy any closer, instead smirking slightly and nodding for the pirate to bring him along as well. Chanyeol’s stomach dropped, and his heart sunk further than he thought possible. Jongdae just closed his eyes and bowed his head toward the ground, not wanting the salt from his eyes to give him further away.

Chanyeol had known what would happen from the beginning, from the second Junmyeon had told him to protect the Prince. Of course, Chanyeol was outmatched, so the outcome was a surprise to no one in that regard. But he had known from the moment he saw the French vessel closing in that he was going to lose something.

Part of the guard figured it would be his own life, and that wouldn’t have even been the worst of it. However, a larger, much more fearful part of Chanyeol knew he would be losing a part of himself to these pirates. As the man behind him pushed Chanyeol off of the bridge and face first on the cherry-stained deck of the pirate ship, he knew what was about to happen.

The guard pushed himself up and on his knees, slowly turning to face the ship he had called home for the last few weeks, to face the few remaining friends that would take part of Chanyeol to the grave with them. Pirates didn’t leave survivors.

Jongdae watched Chanyeol and his solemn expression, terror filling his gut as the last few items of monetary value were looted from the royal vessel and replaced among the pirates.

The Prince caught eyes with Zitao. The younger was struggling, even mores than before. The stone-eyed Chinese man was afraid, and Jongdae wished he never had to see that emotion painted across his smooth face.

Despite what was about to happen, Jongdae kept his eyes glued to Zitao’s ebony ones. He had failed the man; the least he could do was be brave for him now. Chanyeol glanced around the deck one last time, resigning to stare at one of the younger crew members who was shaking and repeatedly muttering a prayer toward the sky.

The pirate captain looked between the kneeling man and the Prince, an almost charming smile gracing his lips as he gave the final nod.

Some of the men received quick ends, bullets to the skull or heart, toppling over in heaps of their own limbs and piss. Others, however, were not as lucky.

The sword resting against Zitao’s throat drew across the skin sharply, leaving a thin line that Jongdae could barely see at first. But with that came the outpour of crimson blood, thick like wine and rich like silk. The boy fell forward on his face, as a few others around him did, struggling to breathe and choking on their last words. The Prince did not blink as Zitao convulsed on the deck, gagging and sputtering all the while. Tears fell from pale cheeks, hands trembled, but Jongdae did not dare look away.

Cheers rang out around the survivors, the pirates seemingly overjoyed by the carnage and destruction left in their path. As his crew continued their celebrations and preparations, Minseok rounded on the struggling-to-stand Prince. Jongdae could not look him in the eye, instead staring at the lifeless body lying in its own blood. The captain’s smile only stretched, crooked and wide like a cat from a children’s book, pleased with himself in every way.

“Don’t worry, Prince. We need you alive for what we have planned.” Those were the words muttered against the shell of Jongdae’s ear as the pirate turned away and ordered his crew to burn it; burn it all.

The Prince didn’t move, watching as the flames rose across the blue. Only when the ship was too far away to be anything but a dot on the horizon did the Prince look down to his hands.

Chanyeol and the stowaway were dragged away kicking and screaming some time ago, Junmyeon carried off to some sort of infirmary, but as Jongdae was finally being led below deck by the second in command, he wished more than anything it had been him kneeling on the splintering wood, taking his last breath and choking on his own blood and vomit.

He wished it had been him.

**Author's Note:**

> as always, love u for reading
> 
> leave kudos + comments !


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